


Stand For Anything

by RittaPokie



Series: Tales From the Dragon Age [2]
Category: Dragon Age
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 21:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7069942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RittaPokie/pseuds/RittaPokie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Call the names of those who would stand against hell, call the names of those who have.</p><p>Takes place from 20-10 years before Dragon Age: Origins.</p><p>Zatlen is the father of the future Inquisitor in this series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stand For Anything

"Why do you suppose they're here?" Arza asks, voice quiet from her hiding place in the brush. She and her love have been tracking a group of Qunari through the forest all evening.

Zat hums and sinks lower in the grass as the group stops to rest below the hill the two are hiding on. "I think someone tipped them off to the family North of here." he says. "The one with the mage."

The dwarf sighs. "We should warn them before they're found." she studies the group below for a moment, worry etched on her face. "The mage looks so young. I didn't think they brought them so newly trained."

Zat squints and his breath catches. "They don't. This is a special case. They have sent the boy to kill his parents."

"How do you know?"

"Adaar told me of their older son who was lost in their escape. This must be him." Zat says. "We cannot waste time to warn the family."

"What-" She does not finish the sentence before Zat is up and sliding down the steep face of the hill. She almost calls out, but she is no fighter and would only endanger herself. Best to let him handle it.

 

"What brings you so far South?" Zatlen asks when the Qunari see him. His voice is flat and even. "And in so few numbers, too."

"This is not your business." the arvaarad says.

"Your mage is a little young." Zatlen continues. He walks a slow half circle around the group, assessing the weapons of every one of them. "It is in poor taste, really, but...I suppose it's nice to see the Arishok has a sense of poetic justice, skewed as it is."

"Speak plainly, basra." the other says, his teeth gritting in annoyance. "If you know what it is we seek, you will tell us where it is."

"She is not an it, nor is she a weapon." Zat says. "And neither is this mage." He casts a glyph of paralysis onto the young mage, not wanting him to participate in the fight at all, and quickly draws his bow to put an arrow into the arvaarad's eye. The other four are easy. Spears are simply dodged and sword attacks are parried. Combat has always come naturally.

The glyph breaks not long after the battle ends, and Arza joins her love at the bottom of the hill when she is sure it is safe. She carefully removes the helmet from the young mage's broken off horns and frowns at the cruelty inflicted on someone so young. Zatlen cuts away the threads holding the mage's mouth shut and heals the holes left behind. There is no way to avoid scarring after it has been in so long.

"Why did you kill them?" the young Qunari asks. "I am saarebas, dangerous thing, I must be watched."

"This isn't true." She says. "We are all dangerous, mage or not."

"No." He says.

"Your arvaarad controled you, and thus your magic. Was he not just as dangerous as you? Did he have more thought, more reason?" Zatlen asks. "You know right and wrong for yourself. You do not need others to tell you."

The young mage grumbles. He still has not met either of their eyes. "They attacked a lone elf, you haven't. You could kill us, but you haven't tried." Arza says. "Do you remember your family?"

"We do not have family." he says.

"When you were young, your parents tried to take you away." She continues. "Your arvaarad was looking for them."

"Tal Vashoth tried to take me away, yes." the boy replies. "We do not have parents."

"Your mother grieves for you still, even ten years later." Zatlen says. "Let us take you to her, to your mother and father and sister. You will find peace with them."

"I will find no peace without my arvaarad."

"The Qunari believe you cannot think for yourself. So how is it that you are so sure you will not find peace?" Zat asks.

"I...it is what I am told."

"Their way isn't the only way." Arza says. "And it's so cruel, what they have done. You don't deserve torture for something you couldn't choose."

 

Asala and Adaar both cry when Zatlen tells them their son has been found. The blood drains from the mother's face when he tells her that her son is a mage. She knows. The scars around her mouth, the jagged break of her horns. She knows what her son has endured.

The young mage's face is sullen until Asaara, his younger sister, peeks from behind her father's legs. His face softens when he sees her and Zatlen leaves them to their reunion, knowing that the boy will be alright with them.

**Author's Note:**

> Basically don't mess with Zatlen


End file.
